Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No. I know there is a scheme in the UK. Since it is a bigger market of more than 50 million people, it has a bigger reinsurance market. When a company issues an insurance policy, it sells on the risk to another company that reinsures it. As Ireland is such a small market, it does not have the same reinsurance market as that in the UK that would allow the risk to be spread across other companies. It is because of the size of the Irish economy. We are not as strong as the UK regarding that issue. One of the companies I mentioned, which is big in the thatched property industry in the UK, has expressed an interest in coming to Ireland and will commence discussions with the Central Bank. That is months away, however. I can honestly say that process takes months. We looked at the flood scheme approach. The view so far is that it might lead to considerable financial exposure for the State, if the State was to get directly into that market. At this point, we have a road to travel.

I am not saying that is a viable last resort. We have all these other measures to go through first.